Good Ole Fashion Texas Fight!

no Kevin von Erich?

You sent me to google with that, thinking I had missed some unheard of Texan songwriter, HA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_Wcpn4scyE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpV83ovYAyY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sa7EkXpy8jE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00wAus8RS7E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5maxXS8C7L8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0QgKHw9yLU

No Sahm, no cred.

I know, But Doug Sahm is a different breed, I think he's more varied than all of these guys.

TVZ has always had a special place in my TX heart but Terry Allen's prose/lyrics have managed to almost eclipse TVZ's ballads.

Have to go with Guy Clark.

Terry Allen is sadly underrated
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=setECdCK-J4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=507yKsk5nv8

Point Taken re:Sahm.

I wish Guy Clark's Taco Cabana ads were up on youtube.

I've spent lots of time with all of these guys, but I don't know who I'm going to vote for. No idea.

townes

Guy or Townes. Leaning Guy, because though I love more Townes I love Guy more.

Jerry Jeff or Townes, prob gonna go with Townes b/c I know the catalogue more deeply, but going to college in Texas, being in a frat, Jerry Jeff was inescapable (& those were good times, kicking hippies' asses)

When I lived in Austin I never really listened to any of these guys because Larry Monroe played them to death. It was every where, and then after I left Austin and started traveling I started missing this kind of country, and I started buying their records. Too bad Townes records had to spike in price in the meanwhile. Trying to decide who is the better songwriter is nearly impossible with this bunch. Voting based on who is the better performer I'd probably go with Jerry Jeff.

Got to go with Guy Clark, Texas Cookin' is just about one of the greatest albums ever. Terry Allen, with his first two albums is a close second, though.

I haven't heard the Album TexasCookin but his performance of the song on Haertworn Highways is classic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdVR_pG_ARI

Still don't know who I'm gonna vote for..

The version on the LP is a full-band thing, a little bit swingier with an army of backing vocalists, as there are all over the album. This is "Virginia's Real", another highlight on a fantastic album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ez927AIt3lw

Jerry Jeff gets my vote! Too many great records under his belt, and I think he's the best songwriter of the bunch. Also the only one to have started out in a psych rock band, unless Stone Country is consider psych?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCCQcgUJo2o&feature=share

On that same tip, JJW's one-time guitar player Gary P. Nunn was in Texas Garage legends The Sparkles.

Guy Clark for consistency, Townes for inspiration. (I like me some Joe Ely, too, but I guess he and the rest of the Flatlanders are sort of ancillary to this scene.)

Steve Earle told me a few stories about Jerry Jeff, a man proud to have been banned from Key West. I guess Jerry Jeff had had his license suspected in Kentucky, and would call up Earle in the middle of the night to drive him around places. (This was back when Earle was still a kid, more or less). Earle said one night Jerry Jeff had him driving around him and Neil Young in the middle of some Nashville night.

You really think Guy Clark is the most consistent of this bunch? I only have two of his records, both from the 70's. How does his 80's and later music hold up. Jerry Jeff continued to make decent sometimes great records in the late 80's and 90's. Imo Townes best record was from 89. I thought about including Waylon in this poll, but I still don't see him fitting among these guys, almost. I also really like the Flatlanders, Rodney Crowell and sometimes Steve Earle, even a little Pat Green and lots of other red dirt country. Would like to see a thorough Texas country poll but I'm not the one to do it.

xpost: Guy's post-70s output. Boats to Build ('92) and Dublin Blues ('95) are fantastic. Even his one from last year, Songs & Stories, is very good though not to the standard of his best.

i posted this on a diff thread once but this kinda slays imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMoasSfLFQ8

i have to admit the only other dude that interests me from the list is townes

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

i voted jerry jeff, but i am a big fan of all these folks.
listening to steve young RIGHT NOW.

of these, i know terry allen the least--i only have one rekkerd of his.

xpost Rodney Crowell is great, but he (and Earle) are sort of next generation. Earle takes a long time to release his first record (though what a great record it is).

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Sort of figured Townes would win, but didn't expect Clark and Allen to tie above Jerry Jeff!

poor JJW, always a bridesmaid.

http://www.texasmonthly.com/story/the-life-of-guy-clark-one-of-nashville-s-greatest-songwriters?fullpage=1